death penalty news October 8, 2004
ARKANSAS: Newman: Execution or suicide? Betsey Wright is a phenomenal woman who is best remembered as Gov. and President Bill Clinton's friend, adviser, consultant and conscience. She tired of the hypocrisy of national politics, however, and pretty much dropped out of sight, choosing to come back home and live the quiet life on Beaver Lake in Northwest Arkansas. But now, she once again is a woman with a cause. "If I live that long, I plan to devote the next eight years of my life to abolishing the death penalty in Arkansas," she told me the other day. And she made it very clear that she believes she can accomplish that goal, which by any measure will be an uphill battle in the eye-for-an-eye heart of the Bible Belt. Wright is deeply respected and considered the best earthly hope of most of the 38 men now awaiting execution on this state's Death Row. One condemned man, however, does not want her help. Rickey Dale Newman says he is guilty of a horrible murder of a female transient in a Crawford County hobo camp on the Arkansas River, and he says he wants to die. If Newman - currently still alive thanks to a court stay of his execution - does die at the hands of the state, Wright says it will be a state-assisted suicide of a man who simply wants to die, whether he actually committed the murder of Marie Cholette or not. And there is reason to believe he did not kill the woman in February of 2001, contends Wright. First off, Newman told Wright he does not believe in suicide, but he wants to die to find peace and escape a world that has not always been kind to a child who was physically abused and unwanted, later adopted from a boys' ranch. He ran away and repeatedly got into nonlethal brushes with the law. Wright argues that this man is mentally ill, retarded or both. Moreover, the evidence against Newman primarily is his confession in which he claims to have done things to his victim that all investigators say never happened. While he was seen with the woman a day or two before the killing, nothing connects Newman directly to a crime without witnesses - except a single, inconclusive hair that may have come from Newman. "No one ever should be condemned to die solely on the basis of a confession," Wright says emphatically, adding that several of the men cleared of murders for which they were condemned to death in Illinois had signed false, coerced confessions. Personally, I would have great difficulty ever imposing the death penalty as a juror. At the same time, I believe that genuine evil is a reality and that imposing the ultimate punishment very well may be the only way to guarantee that evil people do not kill again. I feel the same way about political and religious fanatics and terrorists who commit mass murder without regard or conscience for the lives they destroy. I do not know if Rickey Dale Newman is guilty or not, but I sincerely wonder if he would have been convicted - much less given the death sentence - if he had not insisted on doing everything within his power to guarantee a death that he so desperately desires. He not only confessed to the law, but he also wrote letters to the news media, including me, declaring his guilt and announcing to the world that the only punishment he deserved was death at the hands of the state. Newman insisted on wearing an orange jail uniform instead of civilian clothes that were available during his trial. He also wore prison transfer chains. In other words, he did his best to appear to be more of a vicious animal than a human being. He even spurned legal advice. Today, opponents of the death penalty are hopeful that untested DNA evidence from the transient camp where Marie Cholette was slaughtered may help clear Newman. Wouldn't it be ironic if a major victory in Betsey Wright's battle to abolish capital punishment in Arkansas results from sparing the life of someone who insists he is guilty and wants to be executed? In an article she wrote for the Arkansas Times, Wright contended that if Newman is put to death by lethal injection, Gov. Mike Huckabee will be his Dr. Jack Kevorkian in assisting Newman to die. In other words, Newman's death would be an assisted suicide. If it comes down to it, what will he do in this case? No matter what he does - from nothing to commutation of the death penalty to life without parole - it will be controversial. Such difficult decisions call for the wisdom of Solomon, but sadly, Solomon is no longer available to decide. Life, luck and -30-. (source: Arkansas News Bureau)
